UWMC drama examines mass shootings

Caleb McArthur is shown at rehearsal playing the role of Loner/Dylan.

The University of Wisconsin-Marathon County theater department will add to local gun control dialogue when it performs "Columbinus" at the UW Center for Civic Engagement Theater.

The show will take place at 7:30 p.m. April 25, 26 and 27 and is written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli.

The 2005 drama looks at issues of alienation, hostility and social pressure in high schools and takes its name from the April 1999 mass shooting at a Colorado high school in which 15 people died, including the perpetrators, and 24 others were injured.

The first act is set in a fictional American high school and follows the lives and struggles of eight teenagers. These characters are not given names but labels, and the two outcast friends, "Freak" and "Loner," are slowly driven to crime and madness by bullying from their classmates.

The play includes strong language and imagery and will feature the acting of 10 UWMC students. Austin Phalin is the character of Freak/Eric Harris and Caleb McArthur will play Loner/Dylan Klebold. Phalin will soon train at the prestigious Guthrie Theatre in Minn.

Each performance will be followed by a brief audience talk-back or community-conversation session. General admission tickets cost $10, or $8 for seniors. UWMC students may attend for free.

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UWMC drama examines mass shootings

The University of Wisconsin-Marathon County theater department will add to local gun control dialogue when it performs 'Columbinus' at the UW Center for Civic Engagement Theater.

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